Organizers of the Linux Australia conference have revealed that personal data of delegates may have been exposed after a hacker was able to gain access to a server, reports Security Affairs.
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Collaboration providers Slack disclosed that a database storing its user profile information has been breached. The break-in has been stopped, and Slack announced that it has implemented two-factor authentication going forward.
The US Department of Justice has charged three men with what is being described as “one of the largest reported data breaches in US history,”
The post Three men indicted in ‘one of the largest’ data breaches in US history appeared first on We Live Security.
The Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel chain is investigating a data breach that affects credit cards used in an “isolated number” of its hotels in the United States and Europe. Company officials said that the attack involved “undetectable” malware on some of its systems and emphasized that only credit card data, and no other personal information, […]
As many as 50,000 Uber drivers could have been affected by a security breach last year, potentially leaving their personal data in the hands of an unauthorized third-party, reports Tech Crunch.
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With so many data breaches happening these days, Americans are getting a lot of breach notification letters and emails, but do they deliver useful, readable content, other than a general warning to remain vigilant?
The post Say What? Required contents of notice in data breach notifications appeared first on We Live Security.
Attackers have compromised Anthem Inc., one of the larger health-care companies in the United States, gaining access to the Social Security numbers, birth dates, names, employment and income data and other personal information of an untold number of customers. The company says it is not sure yet how many customers are affected, but Anthem claims to […]
There were a number of big security breaches during 2014, but which was the biggest? We count down the top 5.
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Avast keeps your personal data private.
Members of the European Union (EU) enjoy a high standard of protection of their personal data. The Digital Agenda for Europe lays it all out for you on their website. Here’s a summary:
The EU Data Protection Directive ensures that personal data can only be gathered under strict conditions and for legitimate purposes. Organizations that collect and manage your personal information must also protect it from misuse and respect certain rights. One of the objectives is that organizations notify their customers, in plain language, what information is collected and how it is used as well as get permission before using any personal information.
One of the stumbling blocks has been the so-called one-stop-shop for businesses and citizens in each member state in which authorities will handle citizens’ complaints about any breach of the rules. There are just as many ideas on how to run it as there are EU member states.
The Directive on Privacy and Electronic communications (ePrivacy Directive) ensures that all communications over public networks maintain a high level of privacy. For example, this directive requires website owners marketing online to EU citizens to obtain consent from users, via some kind of opt-in, before implementing cookies or other technologies to capture online visitor information. (See below for information on managing your cookies.)
If your data is stolen, the ePrivacy Directive states that you should be notified. That’s good because data theft can result in identity theft or fraud, damage to your reputation, loss of control over your personal data or a loss of confidentiality.
However, this fall, the rules changed slightly and now businesses don’t have to notify consumers that their personal data has been lost or stolen if the data has been encrypted. The ministers figure that the business has “appropriate technological protection measures” to protect the data that has been lost or stolen from being accessed by people not authorized to see it.
For those of you not familiar with the term, cookies are small files stored in your browser that contain information about your visit to a web page. They help tailor your online shopping experiences by doing things such as recording items in your shopping cart, they also recommend products based on your interests, allow auto-log in and compile browsing histories.
In most modern browsers, you can control cookie settings. The options include viewing stored cookies, controlling which sites you accept cookies from, and setting how long they may be stored and used.
Chrome
Firefox
For instructions to clear cookies in Firefox, please visit Mozilla’s support page.
Chrome
For instructions on clearing and managing cookies in Internet Explorer, please search Microsoft help for your version of IE. Here’s general information.
President Barack Obama is today to propose legislation that would ensure companies inform customers of any leaks within 30 days of a data breach, reports Physorg.
The post Obama calls for 30 day data breach notification and greater student privacy appeared first on We Live Security.
